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Keeping it Strictly Legal

Bali Gearing Up to Move Against Illegal OTAs

(11/30/2012)

As part of a growing dialogue on illegalonline travel agents (OTA) in Bali, Bisnis Bali reports that trying to curb such operations won’t be an easy task.
The government, the party ultimately responsible for maintaining law and order among travel operators, is seeking the collaboration and support of Indonesian travel associations and ecommerce technical experts to curb illegal on line trading in travel.

The government estimates that 30% of all travel transactions now take place on line.

The head of the Badung Tourism Office, Cok Raka Darmawan, on Thursday, November 29, 2012, admitted that while tracking down illegal OTAs will not be an easy task, but that does not mean the government will fail to take action.

“We welcome the efforts of the Indonesian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (ASITA) to create a special division to detect illegal OTAs. We can now involve all parties, like ASITA, PHRI (Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association), HPI (Indonesian Guide Association) and others,” said Darmawan.

“Illegal OTAs are different from unlicensed hotels or accommodation providers. If a hotel has no license it’s easy for us to handle it. Meanwhile, illegal OTAs live in cyberspace,” Darmawan continues.

Earlier, the regent of Badung, AA Gde Agung declare his office was prepared to move against illegal companies.

The chairman of ASITA-Bali, Ketut Ardana said his association would soon from a special agency to tackle illegal OTAs. He said the operations of such companies are hurting travel agents. Any such agency would by necessity people who have a high understanding of information technology and the law.